You may have noticed the Long Island Lizards picture and link on my side panel. Obviously, they are my favorite team in the MLL. This is odd for me because I tend to HATE all teams from New York. The Yankees, Giants, and Rangers are a thing of absolute loathing to me and I am not fond of the Mets, Jets, Red Bulls, or Islanders either (although Kyle Okposo is playing for the Isles now, so...). The exception to my New York hatred has long been the Dragons, but that is only because they are the REAL Barnstormers and many of the players made the move.As for the Lizards, well when I started getting into lacrosse, I searched long and hard for a pro team to root for. At that point, the league had not yet expanded to the west so Chicago and Denver were not options (I did consider changing my affiliation to the Machine, but decided to stay with LI). So why a team from my most hated city? The answer is simple and stupid - their colors and logo absolutely rock! I know, dumb, right? Still, what criteria does one use when picking a "favorite" team?
Location is the most obvious, but at that time the teams were all on the east coast. Favorite players is another factor, but I was still fairly new to the game at that point and did not know a lot of players. Family choices also influence people, but as far as I know, I am the only one in my family (except my wife now) who follows lacrosse. So that left the most juvenile of factors - coolness. The fact that their original logo was based on SoBe helped too (I love that stuff). So now I am a confirmed Long Islands Lizards fan and hope to see them next time they play in Chi-Town.
As a side note, I considered including an "Iowa Lizards" or "Des Moines Lizards" option in the GPLL poll, but decided against it at the last minute. Obviously the team would share the MLL club's colors. I would even go so far as to seek permission to use their logo or a modified version of it. Maybe I would try to see if I could swing an affiliation deal of some sort. Who knows?
